I honestly don’t see how single parents do it. The Raptor Momma is pulling double-duty preparing for a job interview which has put me on Childcare & housecare double-shifts. it is.. quite exhausting. Yet oddly this also gives me the time to zonk out and sneak a draft in.
this was a weird one. I like my discipline in pack 1, not being tempted by black and finding red.
More streaming in written form. It’s like a draft video, except fewer “Ums” and more grammar errors.
Pack 1
Pretty clear Boreal Elemental in P1p1. In pick 2, there was a Hydra? Must have been one hell of a foil (all three uncommons are also in the pack) so not a signal per se, but ye gods. I’ll take it! Blue presented itself as a clear lane (though maybe I should have taken that Gift to help make the Hydra possible…). I wondered how far the white would wheel. The green was thoroughly cut, with rando black or white also looking open. In pack 2, I could look to move hard into green or solidify Esper.
Pack 2
Hey the Eagle! I think I take that over the winged words. Probably too greedy to try and wheel it. Some strong black though, so I push into there. Black wasn’t OPEN open, but it seemed a decent 2nd choice color in pack 1. Weird lack of blue in this pack.
Pack 3
Ew, the red certainly did open up in pack 3.
Review
Okay, looking back maybe the Shock at P1p6 was a signal. But man, red was just SO DRY after that. It is probably more disciplined drafting to take the Shock there over a C+ like Octoprophet, but that’s a tough in the moment.
Engage stream of consciousness mode since I couldn’t get the video capture software up and running in time!
Pack 1: Not getting any clear signals, though the density of good red seemed clear, if not the Fantastic-Four of the mono-red. Might want to prioritize fixing to supplement the Treasure Dragon. Later on, there was some mediocre black, but nothing worth moving into. I kept taking medium red cards. It looked like RW is my lane, which is… bad.
In pack 2, I take Goblin Smugger P2p1 with the hope that I wheel the dual-land. Nothing really worth moving out of my lane. Interesting P2p3, between Chandra’s Spitfire & a second Mask of Immolation. I take the Spitfire. I guess wheeling the RW dual lands was greedy, but who the hell is taking those!?
I opened poop soup in pack 3. The Rugged Highlands if I splash green maybe? But finally the removal started to flow and I end up with the ‘mono-red splash white’ deck.
Draft felt a little rough. No clear signals in pack 1, so I just veered all over. Pack 2 pick 3 I get seduced by a Master Splicer, when I probably should have just taken the fixing. I end up in a three-color monstrosity without even the bombs to make me feel better. As they say on Lords of Limited, “That’s a yikes.”
Well pretty easy P1p1, snagging the Cavalier of Gales over Murder. With a card that powerful, I do lean blue in the next few picks, taking Winged Words over Flame Sweet, Temple over Chandra’s Outrage. P1p5 of Chandra’s Outrage vs. Bloodthirsty Aerialist was a toughy, and the blue does start drying up. I move into green, reap some blue in pack 2, and put together a decent-enough deck.
Draft Log
During Lil’ Chandra earliest (and pre-earliest) days, I tried to keep a semi-regular journal of what was helpful and what was not helpful. What resources did we keep going back to and which baby classes had me pleading with the Benalish Momma to cut class at lunch. What’s funny about it is that the sleep deprivation is so real, I have almost no memory of any of this. However I have reason to trust the author knew what he was talking about at the time. –May 2019
So you’re having a baby! Congratulations! We’ll start off with the first rule: YMMV. You’re Mileage May Vary. Much like wedding planning (and anything else that is both expensive and emotionally fraught) the only rule is to figure out what works best for you as a couple. Plus, there is a major “N of 1” problem with all parenting advice: just because it worked for Lil’ Chandra does not guarantee that it will work for you. I tried to keep everything here at a higher level, more of a framework for the struggles we faced and how we made decisions. This is a sketch of what worked out for our family. This has into two parts, the pre-birth prep and the whole “omg baby” part.
Read moreOff at the Gamma Ray, and while I couldn’t squeeze in the official Kizuki ramen, I was able to meet with original co-host Pete for some coffee and we could crack some packs old-school. I opened some white power with no backup, and ended up in a UG no-Elementals control-ish thing.
Decidedly average. Some removal, some power, some filler. Felt very typical of a sealed deck: running some counterspells, some high-cost cards without the ramp. Games were not fast, so you definitely have time. Finished 2-1 in the finals, once again losing to Rob, who is rapidly becoming my white whale.
Read moreRemoval, the speed/power/flexibility, generally defines a set. There are lots of different iterations (more instant-speed lends itself to defensive, card-advantage decks etc.) but it’s always the first thing to look at. Let’s take a look at what M20 brings us.
So a lot of the greatest hits, not too surprises for a Core set. Enchantment-based removal for white & blue, a good punch card for green, a variety of speed/size/reliability for red and black. 10 common and 3 uncommon. This is much closer to Ravnica Allegiance (10 & 3) than War of the Spark (10 & 12).
Read moreCame across a kind of interesting G or G moment in my final round of a Modern Horizons sealed. I was playing a pretty complicated deck and was definitely running low on time. Low as in “starting game three with under five minutes to play, facing a hopeless-seeming board stall at 1 minute to go.
I go to make a lethal attack with literally 6 seconds left on my clock. And no response from my opponent (who still has over 4 minutes remaining)… their clock just keeps ticking.
It takes me a moment, but I figure out what they are doing. They’re sitting there and going to use their Sliver trigger at a random time to see if I AFK’d or alt-tabbed. I have 6 seconds to respond. I can’t F6 through, because I still have to approve of ‘Declare Blockers”. Unwilling to be angle-shot, I sat there for three minutes, snapped off a pass on the first sliver, waiting another minute, and snapped off the second. From there, the Aven got through.
So, genius or grifter? What I don’t like about it is that they weren’t playing the board state, they were playing the clock. And not in a “time expired, go to turns” sort of way. They were dead at the end of my turn, no way out. I asked LSV and he agreed that it was grifter-y. Case closed!
Benalish Dad 